Disappearance of Maura Murray

Maura Murray (born May 4, 1982) is an American woman who disappeared on the evening of February 9, 2004, after a car crash on Route 112 near Woodsville, New Hampshire, a village in the town of Haverhill.

Her whereabouts remain unknown.

She was a 21-year-old nursing student completing her junior year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst at the time of her disappearance.

Maura Murray was born May 4, 1982, in Hanson, Massachusetts, the fourth child of Frederick "Fred" and Laurie Murray.

She has an older brother, Fred; two older sisters, Kathleen and Julie; and a younger half-brother, Kurt.

Maura was raised in an Irish Catholic household.

When she was six, her parents divorced, after which Maura lived primarily with her mother.

Murray graduated from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, where she was a star athlete on the school's track team.

She was accepted into the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where she studied chemical engineering for three semesters.

She left West Point believing that West Point was not a good fit for her.

After her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to study nursing.

In November 2003, three months before her disappearance, Murray admitted to using a stolen credit card to order food from several restaurants, including one in Hadley, Massachusetts.

The charge was continued in December, to be dismissed after three months' good behavior.

On the evening of February 5, 2004, while she was on duty at her campus security job, Murray spoke on the phone with her older sister, Kathleen.

They discussed Kathleen's relationship problems with her fiancé.

Around 10:30 p.m., while still on her shift, Murray reportedly broke down in tears.

When her supervisor arrived at her desk, Murray was "just completely zoned out. No reaction at all. She was unresponsive."

The supervisor escorted Murray back to her dorm room around 1:20 am.

When asked what was wrong, Murray said two words: "My sister."

The contents of this call remained unknown until October 2017, when Kathleen publicly explained the conversation: Kathleen, an alcoholic, had been discharged from a rehabilitation clinic that evening, and on the way home, her fiancé took her to a liquor store, which caused an emotional breakdown.

On Saturday, February 7, Murray's father Fred arrived in Amherst.

He told investigators he and Murray went car-shopping that afternoon, and later went to dinner with a friend of his daughter.

Murray dropped her father off at his motel room and, borrowing his Toyota Corolla, returned to campus to attend a dorm party.

She arrived at 10:30 pm.

At 2:30 am on Sunday, February 8, she left the party.

At 3:30 am, en route to her father's motel, she struck a guardrail on Route 9 in Hadley, causing nearly $10,000 worth of damage to her father's car.

The responding officer wrote an accident report, but there is no documentation of field sobriety tests being conducted.

Murray was driven to her father's motel and stayed in his room the rest of the morning.

At 4:49 am, there was a cell phone call placed to her boyfriend from Fred's phone.

The participants and content of the phone call are unknown.

Later Sunday morning, Fred Murray learned the damage to his vehicle would be covered by his auto insurance.

He rented a car, dropped Murray off at the university, and departed for Connecticut.

At 11:30 that night, Fred called his daughter to remind her to obtain accident forms from the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

They agreed to talk again Monday night to discuss the forms and fill out the insurance claim via phone.

After midnight on Monday, February 9, Murray used her personal computer to search MapQuest for directions to the Berkshires and Burlington, Vermont.

The first reported contact Murray had with anyone on February 9 was at 1:00 pm, when she emailed her boyfriend: "I love you more stud. I got your messages, but honestly, I didn't feel like talking too much of anyone, I promise to call today though. Love you, Maura" She also made a phone call inquiring about renting a condominium at the same Bartlett, New Hampshire, condo association with which her family had vacationed in the past.

Telephone records indicate the call lasted three minutes.

The owner did not rent the condo to Murray.

At 1:13 pm, Murray called a fellow nursing student for reasons unknown.

On the afternoon of Monday, February 9, at 1:24 pm, Murray emailed a work supervisor of the nursing school faculty that she would be out of town for a week due to a death in her family.